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Helensburgh out to develop veterans rugby

A club in the west of Scotland are embracing the 10-a-side version of rugby to try to encourage more players aged 40+ to stick in at rugby or pick up the sport.

Over the summer Helensburgh Rugby Club will host a Veterans Tens tournament once a month, with the second event taking place this Saturday (8 June) at Ardencaple. The first tie is at 1.15pm.

Some 90 players, from 11 clubs, are registered for this weekend’s round-robin tournament so far, that will raise money for a charity called Callum’s Walking Wish, and other interested players are encouraged to get in touch through the tournament’s Facebook page named Scottish Veterans Tens Rugby.

Event organiser, David Higgins, said: “I have been at Helensburgh for 40 years and I started to play old boys 10s when I was out at the Dubai 7s tournament.

“This version of the game has had a lot of growth around the world and it has a model that I believe is easy to implement in the west of Scotland because a match is 10 minutes each way and that is more appealing to older players.

“The things I’d like to see off the back of these events are more camaraderie in old boys rugby and to help people realise that their rugby career doesn’t have to be over after 35.

“I also hope it will encourage other clubs to organise their own events in the west of Scotland and that in time we may even have enough regular players that we could organise a touring team.

“We do already have a slot booked for the tens tournament at next year’s Dubai 7s to work towards.”